NimbusML's dot_export_pipeline for c#

[nsulikowski]

How can I access the list of estimators inside a pipeline?
I can see it as _estimators in the "Non-Public" area of the Locals window when I debug.
I'm trying to display the pipeline graphically (from c#) similar to the way NimbusML does

from nimbusml.utils.exports import dot_export_pipeline
dot_vis = dot_export_pipeline(pipeline, stream)
print(dot_vis)

I'm stuck at how to navigate the pipeline.

[Ivanidzo4ka]

Any EstimatorChain is IEnumerable<IEstimator> so you can iterate over them.
I'm a bit struggling to understand what exactly you mean (probably because I have limited experience with Nimbus). Can you provide code snippet of what you doing and what you is your expected result?

[nsulikowski]

are you sure? i pressed f12 to see the definition and i dont see ienumerable... Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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________________________________ From: Ivan Matantsev <notifications@github.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2019 1:53 PM To: dotnet/machinelearning Cc: Nestor Sulikowski; Author Subject: Re: [dotnet/machinelearning] NimbusML's dot_export_pipeline for c# (#2433) Any EstimatorChain is IEnumerable<IEstimator> so you can iterate over them. I'm a bit struggling to understand what exactly you mean (probably because I have limited experience with Nimbus). Can you provide code snippet of what you doing and what you is your expected result? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#2433 (comment)>, or mute the thread<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB-M9_MWF-7mtaFPm6qC64HwmISC974_ks5vKySYgaJpZM4ak-RF>.

[Ivanidzo4ka]

My bad I was thinking about TransformerChain which is IEnumarable<ITransformer> and I expect it to be same for EstimatorChain.

@TomFinley any chance you aware why @Zruty0 implemented TransformerChain as IEnumerable but didn't do that for EstimatorChain? Does it sound like API flaw for you?

[TomFinley]

Maybe, except, I can see a practical reason why one might want to iterate over ITransformer, I don't see a reason why one would want to iterate over IEstimator.

There's also a question I have about this. In our world, models are transformers... that is, they are the result of fitting an estimator, you don't get estimators out of them. (I.e., IEstimator produces ITransformer, but you'll note ITransformer does not produce IEstimator.) Any operations over transformers cannot produce estimators out of them, so I don't think in any scenario you can get an estimator chain out of a transformer chain.

I am also not a Nimbus expert, but what that function looks like is it takes a model and attempts to do a "code export" of the model... e.g., if you have a linear model, it might write out some easily cut/pastable code that performs that evaluation. It seems to be working via our ICanSaveAsCode interface, which has nothing to do with estimators. So I am fairly certain this doesn't do what we think it does.

But someone actually on Nimbus project might be able to provide better answers than this.

[Zruty0]

Hey, someone summoned me! :)

Actually, I think it was my omission: I should've made the estimator chain an enumerable.
The other thing that I think did not realize its potential is the fact that the estimator and transformer chains are generic on the last estimator/transformer. I think just class EstimatorChain: IEstimator<ITransformer> would work just fine.

In documentation examples I struggle to remember a single case where we substantially utilized LastTransformer / LastEstimator.

[harishsk]

@nsulikowski Please reopen the issue if your question has not been answered.